Angioplasty or Pacemaker Surgery

Group of procedures performed by cardiologists with similar skills–the introduction of a long tube (catheter) through an arm or leg artery without an open operation with removal of a blockage and often includes the introduction of a mesh tube into the arteries in the heart muscle to restore needed blood flow; or the introduction of a long tube (catheter) through an arm or leg artery to repair a diseased valve of the heart or to treat other heart structures (heart septums) without an open operation; or placing a wire into the heart and then connecting it to a power device on the chest wall to assist normal beats in the heart.

Find the best surgeons — Checkbook has identified as having better-than-average outcomes based on analysis of more than four million surgeries done for hospital inpatients by more than 50,000 surgeons.

How Big Are the Differences

Some surgeons' patients have much higher rates of deaths and other bad outcomes than other surgeons'. This shows the percentage of bad outcomes for the best-performing one-tenth of surgeons, the average surgeon, and the worst performing one-tenth of surgeons.